New minvans sit on Detroit riverfront due to shortage of trains

A fishing boat motors on the Detroit River in front of thousands of Windsor-built Chrysler Town and County and Dodge Grand Caravans parked on Detroit, Michigan riverfront waiting to be transported by rail, Wednesday April 23, 2014. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star)

A driver wheels a Dodge Grand Caravan into position as thousands of Windsor-built minivans are parked on Detroit, Michigan riverfront, waiting to be transported by rail Wednesday April 23, 2014. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star)

Several hundred new Chrysler minivans are sitting on riverfront property in Detroit because there are no trains to transport them across North America.

They are being stored indefinitely, the automaker confirmed Wednesday, on property owned by a Detroit trucking company.

A glut in the movement of both crude oil from Alberta’s oilsands and shale oil out of North Dakota has increasingly dominated the rail freight industry which is struggling to find enough engines and trains to keep up with demand.

“We have experienced delays of delivery of our finished vehicles due to rail car shortages,” said Katie Hepler, manager of corporate communications for Chrysler Group LLC. “We are using alternative modes of transport and alternative routes where possible to move around the biggest problem areas.

“We have not lost any production as a result of these shortages.”

It’s too expensive to move minivans or other vehicles all by truck – especially across the U.S. Rail is a far more economic alternative.

Bakken oil has emerged in recent years as an important resource in the United States with most production out of North Dakota and Montana. It has been estimated that over one million barrels per day are being produced. That oil is being shipped by rail across North America, including through the Detroit-Windsor rail tunnel, to destinations on Canada’s east coast.

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the oil industry is using every tank car available to keep up with the “exponential growth in Bakken oil production” since hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” made it possible to extract more oil from the ground.

Freight railroads transported 434,032 carloads of crude in 2013, up from just 9,500 in 2008, AP reported.

Ethanol production has also escalated dramatically, creating competition for available trains and rail cars. About 69,000 carloads of ethanol were shipped on rails in 2005. Last year, it was about 325,000 carloads.

Last summer, a runaway oil train derailed and exploded in Lac-Megantic, Que., killing 47 people and destroying dozens of buildings.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, worried about the potential for catastrophic accidents involving oil and ethanol trains that are sometimes as many as 100 cars long, is drafting new tank-car regulations aimed at making the cars less likely to spill their contents in the event of a crash. But final rules aren’t expected until late this year at the earliest, AP reported on Wednesday.

CP Rail is a primary source for carrying oil and also the dominant company in the Windsor area for moving freight, including minivans.

When asked about the inability to move Windsor’s finished minivans, a CP spokesman said Wednesday it’s not just a story about the movement of oil, but the wicked winter weather also caused havoc and delays throughout the railway industry.

“Lingering impacts from extreme weather across the continent this winter has slowed the North American railroad supply chain, particularly in Chicago, which is the hub for automotive moves,” Ed Greenberg said.

“This has caused a transportation congestion issue through Chicago for all railroads, which continues to be addressed.”

CP’s position is that “we are in the process of restoring our system to more normal levels,” he said.

“CP is responding to customers as quickly as possible as Chicago’s transportation congestion situation is being aggressively addressed,” Greenberg said. “Our railway is treating all customers equitably and actively responding to their shipping requirements.”

Dino Chiodo, president of Unifor Local 444 which includes Chrysler’s minivan plant, is just getting up to speed on the railway issue.

“Unfortunately, there are some rail complications throughout North America in shipping vehicles to their final destination,” he said. “Chrysler is working through those concerns and is determined on finding alternate routes to ship vehicles to our customers.

“They are working hard to mitigate the circumstances and I don’t see this as a concern to be worried about at this time.”

He noted Local 444 was recently able to negotiate getting an auto transport division in place for the minivan plant – Chrysler Group Auto Transport – which started rolling out last fall.

There are to be 33 auto haulers travelling up to Toronto and across the border into the midwestern states under the plan of helping get the vehicles to customers, Chiodo said.

A driver wheels a Dodge Grand Caravan into position as thousands of Windsor-built minivans are parked on Detroit, Michigan riverfront, waiting to be transported by rail, Wednesday April 23, 2014. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star)

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